Selected Press Jay Scheib Feature Articles, Reviews, and General Press Jay Scheib | [email protected] | Selected Feature Articles and Reviews The best New York theater directors - Time Out New York Time Out New York Kids Time Out Chicago Time Out Worldwide Travel Book store Subscribe to Time Out New York Subscriber Services Home Art Books Clubs Comedy Dance Film Games Gay I, New York Kids Museums Music Opera & Classical Own This City Real Estate Restaurants & Bars Sex & Dating Shopping Spas & Sport Theater Travel TV Video Tools Theater E-mail Time Out New York / Mar 25, 2009 Print New York's best Rate & comment Report an error The best New York theater directors Share this 1. Jay Scheib Mixing multimedia with deadpan-cool (and very sexy) actors, Scheib is forging new ways of seeing drama. 2. Ken Rus Schmoll Schmoll takes on more difficult playwrights, teasing out the ambiguity and menace in their words. 3. Elizabeth LeCompte As chief engineer of the Wooster Group’s postmodern tech spectacles, she has influenced a generation of experimenters. 4. Anne Kauffman She helmed two of our favorite shows in years: The Thugs and God’s Ear. Sensitive to thorny language, she makes the murky crystal clear. Cheap tickets 5. Joe Mantello Seats for a song Sure, he helmed the blockbuster Wicked, but the former actor is most at home Find great deals on working on tough drama on an intimate level. tickets. 6. Richard Foreman Guides They don’t call him the king of the avant-garde for nothing; Foreman is the auteur’s Student Guide auteur: He writes, designs, directs and even operates the sound. Practical (and frivolous) 7. Robert Woodruff advice for the scholarly. It’s criminal how little he works in the city, but when he does, we’re transfixed by the Real Estate Guide On the blogs elegant brutality of his cool tableaux. Score a great deal. Visitors Guide 8. Stephen Daldry Everything you need to get Without this bold British director (of stage and screen), Billy Elliot wouldn’t have been The cast of Hair the most out of NYC. nearly so magical. comes out for Continuing Education Never stop learning. 9. Julie Taymor marriage » We’re waiting for a follow-up as impressive as The Lion King, but until then, we’ll still A one-man remake of get weepy over "Circle of Life." Offers First » 10. Bartlett Sher Nightlife + Puppetry of the Penis: This guy can do everything: old-fashioned musicals like South Pacific and great Get real-time information for open » bars, clubs and restaurants drama like Awake and Sing! He’s a treasure. on your mobile. Irena's Vow takes liberties Prizes & promotions with a Holocaust » Win prizes and get discounts, event invites and more. Free flix Comments | Leave a comment Get free tickets to hot new movie releases. No comments yet. Click here and be the first! 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This Beautiful In the Heights Chekhov 101 City http://newyork.timeout.com/articles/theater/72875/the-best-new-york-theater-directors[4/6/09 5:02:35 PM] G<FGC< A8P J:?<@9 I`[`e^ X ;`]]\i\ek :`iZl`k K_\ \og\i`d\ekXc [`i\Zkfi `j dXb`e^ X eXd\ ]fi _`dj\c] flkj`[\ k_\ kiX[`k`feXc i\j`[\ek k_\Xki\ e\knfib JZ_\`Y 9P 88IFE D8:B J:?CF== mportantthingstoknowaboutdirectorJayScheib:Born: “Oneofmygoalsistopaymyactorsasmuchasthey 1969,Shenandoah,Iowa.Occupation:associateprofessorin wouldmaketemping,”hesays.Still,hisregularactors,a musicandtheatrearts,MassachusettsInstituteofTechnol- groupofsixtoeightthatonemightcalltheJayScheibPlay- ogy.Numberofproductionsslatedfor2008:five,threeof ers,moanlikeaddictswhentheythinkofworkingwithhim themworldpremieres,takingplaceinthreecountries.(“Last again.“WheneverIgetacallfromJay,Ijuststopthepresses,” season,Ihadsevenpremieresinfivedifferentcountries,” saysNewYork–basedperformerEricDeanScott.Heand @ Scheibsaysevenly.Hesays therestofTeamScheib everything evenly.) Number aregamblingbigas ofresidenttheatregigsthis they develop Scheib’s yearandeveryyearhereto- exuberantly physical, fore: zero. heavily technologized Howcansuchadirec- butemotionallyopen torasScheib—who,notso style of theatremaking. incidentally, has also writ- Audiencesandcritics tenoradaptedscriptsfor mayloveitorhateit, aboutadozenofhisown buttheyarerarelyindif- productions—earn degrees ferent. Scheib himself andawardsfromimpeccably cites Tadeusz Kantor, conventional bodies (B.A., ?8P;<E K8PCFI Robert Wilson, William University of Minnesota; 8gi`c Jn\\e\p Xe[ K_fdXj B\Xk`e^ `e JZ_\`YËj K_`j GcXZ\ @j X Forsythe, Rem Koolhaas MFA, Columbia University; ;\j\ik Xk k_\ @ejk`klk\ f] :fek\dgfiXip 8ik `e 9fjkfe% andAnneBogartamong NEA/TCGCareerDevel- hisvariousinspirations opmentProgramgrant)andthengoontofashionhiscareer andmentors—famousnamesthatwouldmeannothingif entirely outside of the institutions they were intended to Scheibcouldn’trefinethoseinfluencestogiveeverywork serve—ostensiblythecenteroftheAmericantheatre?The (whetheritbeasongcycleorstraightplay,withhisown circuitheisnowriding—stretchingfromNewYorkCity’s textornot,high-techorlow)agenuinesenseofexcitement P.S.122toMinnesota’sWalkerArtCentertotheatresand and risk. festivalsinHungary,AustriaandGermany—suggeststhat Let’slookattheprojects.InJanuaryThisPlaceIsaDesert anothercenterexistsandthatanotherkindoftheatricallife appears at Mark Russell’s Under the Radar Festival at New ispossible,evenifit’snotquite,ornotyet,aliving. YorkCity’sPublicTheater,theequivalent,forScheib’scircuit, .' 8D<I@:8EK?<8KI< A8E'/ G<FGC< of the resident theatre’s Humana Festival of New American Plays. Desert is a smashup ofrelationshipsinspiredbytheworksof filmmaker Michelangelo Antonioni and Three Mile Island transcripts. Disintegrat- ing couples video and re-video each other withmultiplelivefeedsdesignedbyScheib’s frequent collaborator Leah Gelpe. InMarch,hisas-yet-untitledMars projectpremieresatP.S.122,combining scientificfactandfictiontoimaginegenuine space colonization. In July, Scheib’s staging of the biographical song cycle by the gypsy cabaret punk band World Inferno Friendship Society, titled AddictedtoBadIdeas:Peter Lorre’s Twentieth Century, has its European premiere at the Salzburg Sommerszene (it IFJ< :8CC8?8E playedthispastSeptemberatthePhiladelphia Nfic[ @e]\ief =i`\e[j_`g JfZ`\kp `e 8[[`Zk\[ kf 9X[ @[\Xj Xk k_\ G_`cX[\cg_`X C`m\ 8ikj =\jk`mXc% LiveArtsFestival).ThiscomingSeptember, notfarawayinBudapest,hewilladaptPhilip ofGertrudeStein’sTheMakingofAmericans Scheibistallandlanky,withthick K.Dick’ssciencefictioninapiececalled at the Walker Art Center. Scheib is writing brown curly hair going gray and a square, TimeAgainandAgain,forPontMühely the libretto. friendlyfacewithapointofachin.He theatre (whose actors also plan to take part And that’s the year. Add to that at least moves and speaks casually—at a roundtable intheMarsproject,iffundingpermits). one student production, various readings, discussion,he’drathersprawlthansit.A Anengagementtentativelyscheduledfor teaching.“Forthepastthreeyears,I’vebeen formerhighschooltrack-and-fielder,hecan December will bring him to Minneapolis to booked a year and half in advance,” he says, live in his body as well as his mind. (The directthepremiereofAnthonyGatto’sopera again, evenly. “This year it’s almost two.” result,perhaps,ofhisMidwesternfarm-boy .) 8D<I@:8EK?<8KI< A8E'/ issues—and then I found a interesting. Scheib had gambled and won. way to reassess them.” Scheibisperfectlycomfortablebeing Iwitnessedasampleof textuallyfaithfultootherwriters’newplays, Scheib’s approach last year, butonethingaboutWomen was atypical—its when he directed Daniel low-techstyle.AtthefinishofWomen,the Veronese’s Women Dreamt gun-totingactorjustyelled“Bang.”(By Horses at the Buenos Aires comparison, ThisPlaceIsaDeserthas four inTranslationfestivalat screenswithlivevideofeed.Theroleofvideo P.S.122.I’dseenVeronese’s mediation in live performance has obsessed own production of his play Scheibformorethanadecade.) in Argentina—a semi-realis- Listeningtohisplayerstalkabouthow ticdinnerpartyincramped they developed Women reveals a lot about quarters, brimming with Scheib’smethod.Firstofall,likehisteacher @E<J 8C;8 suppressed violence. Under AnneBogart,Scheibtreatshisactorsascol- Scheib’s direction, the play- laboratorsratherthaninstruments.“He’s ing space was vast and the interestedinpeople—whoyouare,whatyou DXcX`bX C\[`^ `e BfddXe[\i BfYXpXj_` Xk >\idXepËj violencewasdrawntothe bringtotheprocessandhowyouandonlyyou JXXice[`jZ_\j JkXXkjk_\Xk\i% surface,enactedwithbox- canbringthatthing,”saysanotherfrequent ing, slap fights, compulsive actor-collaborator April Sweeney. When their upbringing. Actor Aimée Phelan-Deconinck vomiting and semi-gymnastic stunts. Was extensivetableworkonWomen finally ended, remembers, “In Germany, we were outside this acting or contact improv? It played like Scheibbroughtthecasttoitsfeetwithsmall a rehearsal space. A shirt was in a tree, very both—and, at the first show, also a bit like exercises and wild-card requests—recipes high, and he lassoed it.”) porn (when they’re talking, you just want formomentstheactorswouldgooffand This casualness is also deceptive—or theaction).ButwhenIreturnedforthefinal create.“Wecomposedalistofthingsto no longer the whole story. The sprawling show of the run, all was knit together: sen- have,”saysScott,“like30secondsofarepeti- productionsofHeinerMüllerandofScheib’s